INTERVIEW: “Step Into The River” Director on Making And Teaching Animation

INTERVIEW: “Step Into The River” Director on Making And Teaching Animation

January 5th, 2022

Jackson Murphy

With the Oscar nominations just a little over a month away, another contender emerges in the Best Animated Short Film category. One of the 15 finalists is Step Into the River, from director and animation teacher Weijia Ma. She joined me over Zoom from Shanghai for this Animation Scoop Q&A. (This interview was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: What was your inspiration for Step Into the River?

Weijia Ma: The inspiration was the real background story from myself and my friends. But the whole story is a fiction film, but I wrote it based on some stuff I knew from life and I put those materials into this setting of two girls in a village and their situation and the group of kids. I was making my graduation film called The Same River Twice. It’s a film kind of like a family portrait. After that, I kind of dug deeper into my childhood memory and made this one.

JM: How do you really see yourself in Lu and Wei?

WM: Wei is more based on my background story. I had a baby brother who passed away before I was born. So I put that as a setting for this character. And for Lu, she’s based on one of my friends. I put her real background into this character.

JM: There’s a powerful moment where we learn of Wei’s brother’s passing. You go with this backstory, and you change the animation style. Why did you choose that specific painted style for that sequence?

WM: There are two sequences in the different style compared to the other parts of the film. I want to make it more clear that those scenes are from the fantasy of these two girls. When they thought about what happened when they were not really there, but they imagined how things happened. There were some supernatural images like the funeral of a baby that transformed into the present time and the transfer between the baby and the koi fish. And also with this style we can see the paintbrushes. The strokes are thick. It’s emotionally more powerful.

JM: I agree. And with the majority of the rest of your short, you use pastel colors and lighter shades. What exactly is your process to get those shades?

WM: The backgrounds were drawn first on paper and then we scanned all the drawings into the computer and did some detailed adding with lights and shadows. For the character animation, we did it in the software, so we kind of mixed the more traditional way and the digital way together.

JM: It looks very nice. How would you say Lu and Wei are great role models for young women today?

WM: They’re kind of not successful. For me, I think they both… survived. One of them survived because of a natural choice. She’s healthier than the previous baby. The other one survived because of other people helping her. They are both survivors and they try to live. Although they try to leave the village and find a better place… they fail to leave, but they get stronger. And with their friendship, they can keep their lives.

JM: Their friendship is strong. And there are some really spiritually powerful and unexpected moments. I think of the moment with all the babies in the river. What did you want to show in terms of a spiritual connection to this story? How did you want to present that here?

WM: It’s kind of showing the common culture in China that some people believe in the spirits — after people’s death, they will stay in this world. Most of the time we believe in that because we couldn’t stand the pain when some of your family died. And for the babies too, I think it’s very complicated because when people give babies or things they don’t want to the river, the river takes kids away. But at the same time, it’s a way to comfort themselves. When you believe the ghosts aren’t evil, you will feel better when you lose someone. So it’s very complicated both culturally and socially in my country. And when we see a lot of ghost babies appear, that’s also a moment for real morale for all those lost babies. A lot of them died without a name. That moment was a starting point of this film. We have changed many different versions of the script, but for this one scene it stayed there forever. It’s a powerful moment. Everything we did for the script was working for this moment to rise up people’s respects or love and memories for those lost babies.

JM: Grief is very difficult for so many. This is a moment that is going to stay with people. You have been an animation teacher as well. How have your experiences as a teacher and working with students influenced the work you’ve created in your shorts?

WM: It’s a good job that can make me have some free time to work on my own films. And at the same time, I need to always update my knowledge of animation because each year my students come and I need to discuss and teach them some new things. In a way that’s also a good aspect for my own creating.

JM: It’s great, and I hope your students respect you and see the incredible work you’ve done and are inspired by you. It’s also interesting that you worked on a documentary short called “My Quarantine Bear”. How did this come to be?

WM: I made it without any plan. I worked with a French production company for Step Into the River. In 2020, I was working with my team in France and we were nearly at the end of our production. We finished the image parts in mid-March. The COVID-19 situation [caused] all of Europe to break down. So I was stuck in Leon. I stayed there for more than a month and we had to stop making the animation. I struggled. We didn’t know what would happen next. At the end of April, I finally took a flight and came back to China. I did my documentary during my trip.

I started recording my phone because… it was my first time making a documentary. So I was just like everyone else — the passengers, we were all shocked and a little bit scared and didn’t know what would happen. I was just recording for me to remember this very special moment. And then I came to Shanghai. Because of our policy, I needed to stay in a hotel for 14 days. I kept recording in the hotel room, and I started editing it into this short film. My production company thought it was good, so we worked a little bit on the post-production.

JM: Obviously, it was an unbelievable time. And then Step Into the River came out and was able to be shown in virtual festivals. How was the reaction and experiencing this in a very unique way?

WM: I’m happy that it went to many festivals, and the online way of hosting everything seems fine for me because I couldn’t physically be with the audiences. It’s still good that we can have some communication. Still it would be great if I could meet people — meet you — in person to watch the film together. But the world has been completely changed.

JM: Yes it has. We’ll have to see how we get back to more in-person events. Of course, one of the big (hopefully) in-person events that will be at the end of March is the Academy Awards. You’re on the shortlist for Best Animated Short Film. How does it feel, and what would it mean to potentially be an Academy Award nominee?

WM: I’m very honored. Sometimes I can’t believe it’s happening. Without any of the audiences, directors or hosts in person, I’m kind of losing the strong emotion of getting shortlisted, but I’m so happy with it. It feels less for me, but I’m still excited and feel very grateful for my team. I started this script in 2015. It was really difficult to do an animated short. We went through all these years and made it. I’m proud of my team and really thankful for them.

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Jackson Murphy

Jackson Murphy is a movie critic and entertainment columnist. He is the creator of the website Lights-Camera-Jackson.com, and has made numerous appearances on television and radio.

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